Vatican judges toss some evidence in papal butler's trial

Sunday

Sep 30, 2012 at 12:01 AMSep 30, 2012 at 3:59 PM

VATICAN CITY - The pope's once-trusted butler went on trial yesterday, accused of stealing papal documents and passing them off to a journalist in the worst security breach of the Vatican's recent history.

VATICAN CITY - The pope's once-trusted butler went on trial yesterday, accused of stealing papal documents and passing them off to a journalist in the worst security breach of the Vatican's recent history.The case has embarrassed the Vatican and might shed further light on the discreet, internal workings of the papal household.

In its first hearing in the case, the three-judge Vatican tribunal yesterday threw out some evidence gathered during the investigation of butler Paolo Gabriele, who is charged with aggravated theft. It also decided to separate Gabriele's trial from that of his co-defendant, a computer expert charged with aiding and abetting the crime.

Gabriele is accused of taking the pope's correspondence, photocopying the documents and handing the papers to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, whose book His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Pope Benedict XVI, was published to great fanfare in May.

Prosecutors have said Gabriele confessed to taking the documents because he wanted to expose the "evil and corruption" in the church. They quoted him as saying during an interrogation that he felt inspired by the Holy Spirit to inform the pope about the church's problems and that a "shock, even a media one, would have been healthy to bring the church back on the right track."

Nuzzi yesterday wished Gabriele well, tweeting "Good Luck, courageous Paoletto, we're with you." He referred to Gabriele by the diminutive nickname used by the pope and other members of the papal household.

The trial in the intimate, austere courtroom was the highest-profile case to come before the Vatican judiciary since the 1929 founding of the Vatican city state, the world's smallest sovereign state. Media from around the world converged on St. Peter's Square to cover the case, which has attracted attention not so much because of the content of the documents but because they were stolen from the pope's desk and leaked, allegedly by one of Benedict's closest assistants.

Yesterday, the court said the pope's personal secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, had been called as a witness. His testimony is sure to attract attention because Gaenswein rarely speaks in public, much less about the details of the tight-knit papal family, of which Gabriele was a part.

Other scheduled witnesses include one of the four consecrated women who take care of the pope's apartment, a monsignor in the Vatican secretary of state, the No. 2 Swiss Guard commander and the head of the Vatican police force.

Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre set the next hearing for Tuesday, when Gabriele is to be questioned. Dalla Torre said he thinks the trial can be wrapped up in four more hearings.

Gabriele faces up to four years in prison if convicted. He already has asked to be pardoned by the pope, something most Vatican watchers say is a given.

Gabriele, 46, appeared calm but tense during the 2 hour, 15-minute hearing, frequently crossing his hands or clasping them in his lap.

He sat alone on a bench on one side of the courtroom, following the proceedings impassively. During a break in the hearing, he chatted with his attorney, Cristiana Arru.

Arru raised a series of objections at the start of the hearing, only some of which were accepted by the court. One concerned two jailhouse conversations Gabriele had with the head of the Vatican police force without his lawyers present. The judges declared both conversations inadmissible as evidence. The content isn't public.

Arru also sought access to the report of a commission of cardinals appointed by the pope to investigate the leaks alongside Vatican magistrates. The court denied the request.

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